The reasons for purchasing a grain bagger are obvious. If you're still hung up on the decision, I'll try and make it a little easier for you.

There has been quite a large shift over the past few years with farmers not being able to store all of the grain they yield in bins due to a really great harvest, so we're stuck with this problem. We need more storage, the grain bins are full, and the bin crews can't get out to the yard or it is impossible to even acquire more bins. The simple solution? Chuck the commodity in a giant plastic bag where it is not affected by weather or moisture changes, right in the same field it was harvested from. With the cost of grain bags dropping (0.6c / bushel) it's becoming much more mainstream, and I think we can expect to see more and more bags in the field as time goes on.

There are a couple more main reasons for bagging. If you've got combines in different fields during a great year for harvest such as 2013, chances are you're going to be running trucks full time and putting wear on them just to keep up with the combines and getting the commodity into the bins. With a grain bagger, you can just drive over to the bagger in the same field with the grain cart or combine, unload into the bagger, and it'll sit there until you either have bin storage available to dry the grain, or until you'd like to haul it to the terminal. Remember that these grain bags don't fluctuate in moisture content, whatever you put in will come out the same way.

If bin storage space is an issue, we see a lot of our customers using grain rings with tarps, but they let in moisture and whatever grain is sitting on the ground is sure to spoil at some point. You can keep the grain in a bag for even two years, and be able to pull it out and haul it away.

All in all, the way we're farming changes every year, and bagging grain is something that is becoming extremely common. We carry the Flaman Pro Grain Bagger at all of our mainline locations, and the bags to go with them as well. Need the extractor to take the grain out? We sell those too, both new and refurbished. For more information and specifications of the Flaman Pro Grain Bagger, please visit www.Flaman.com.

There are a lot of reasons why you should choose a conveyor over an auger or vice versa, but I'll make it a little easier for you to figure out exactly which product will best suit you.

One of the biggest factors in someone purchasing brand new for the first time will be the cost. Conveyors are quite a bit more expensive than augers, but tend to last two to three times longer overall than an auger. The flighting on an auger would have to be replaced before it has put through one million bushels, where we've seen the belting on a conveyor last three to four million bushels.

You can also get away with a shorter auger for the size of bin you're loading into, as the unloading angle is a lot higher on an auger, versus having the grain fall back down the conveyor belt once it reaches a certain angle. The motor on a conveyor is positioned higher up on top of its tube, to avoid the interaction with chaff, and requires less horsepower than an auger.

The last big thing that you may be concerned about is what kinds of commodities compliment the auger or conveyor. A conveyor will be more gentle and avoid cracking on pulse crops such as peas and lentils, but canola and other oil seeds are not recommended because the oil deteriorates the belt and gets gummed inside the conveyor. Augers, however, love oil seeds, as they almost lubricate the machine, leading to a much longer auger lifespan.

Now that you've got all your information, give us a call for some pricing or check out our selections of augers hereand conveyors here.

This handy infographic can help you decide whether an auger or a conveyor is best suited for your operation.

With moisture accuracy within one tenth of a percent and temperature down to one Fahrenheit, OPI Temperature and Moisture monitoring systems have become the industry standard in grain monitoring over the past quarter-century. Most of us are aware about the savings and efficiency of the system, but there are a ton of other features that are often not mentioned.

For instance, you're travelling down south during the winter months and you haven't got a clue what's happening back at the homestead. All of the sudden, you get an alarm on your cell phone that tells you grain is being drained from one of your bins. If you haven't scheduled a truck to pick any of it up, chances are there is a theft underway. Now all you've got to do is call a brother or a cousin to go check things out. For most people, this is a fantasy but it has recently become a reality with the Integris system by OPI. It monitors the levels of grain in your bins, and can be set up to send you a text message or e-mail when grain is being drawn, if grain is overheating or if it's getting too wet or dry.

The system can also handle the automatic drying of grain if it's hooked up to a fan control that the system supplies. Basically, you tell the software what type of grain is in which bin, what temperature and moisture levels you want the grain at, and the system will automatically kick the fan on at certain times to ensure that your commodity is emptied in your ideal condition. An example would be the drying / rehydrating of soybeans. We've seen cases where a customer will fill a bin of soybeans with a moisture content of between ten and nineteen percent, and will end up with a final moisture content of between thirteen and fourteen percent, thus securing their premium.

The system can also be outfitted with a mobile weather station that measures different aspects of the outdoor ambient weather, and calculates when the optimal time to heat or dry grain would be. In any case, you're looking for the most effective way to monitor all aspects of your grain, not just the temperature. We have a team of experts and installers on staff to get you outfitted with the best setup for your bin yard. CLICK HERE for more information and specs on all of the grain monitoring equipment we sell.

So imagine this. You've got a weekend warrior that you run at the track, and you need a lowboy trailer to throw your high horsepower car on top of. You've subsequently purchased a garden shed that measures eight feet by twelve, and you need a highboy to haul it up to the lake so that you don't have to worry about fitting it in between the fender wells. You need something that can tilt in either configuration so that you don't have to mess around with heavy ramps. Well fortunately for those of you who need this kind of versatility, we have an option that you may want to look further into.

In 2012, we started carrying the Multideck built by Trailtech in Gravelbourg SK, and saw that the optional towing configurations of this trailer are the closest thing to endless we've seen yet. You can order them with a stationary deck on the front in case you've got a skid steer and you need a place to store a bucket that doesn't move. It features a four way lift system that not only elevates from a lowboy up to a highboy and back down, but also a two-way tilt feature to get the back of the deck on the ground for ease of loading. The trailer uses an electric / hydraulic pump to actuate the lift systems, and has an optional fast-charge kit so that you can plug the trailer right into the truck to charge it.

Like the idea, but concerned about the weight on the hitch? No problem. We offer the Multideck in a gooseneck option as well. Some models come with hinged dovetails. It would be nice to one day see a charge kit built in so that you could simply plug it into a 110V receptacle, but I don't think it'll be too far down the road, as we're starting to see manufacturers implement this technology into trailers that feature electric components. Either way, you're sure to be hassled by your friends to use it on a constant basis.

Well, we've had about as much rain as a person needs for the rest of the year. It seems like it's been raining across the province non-stop for the last two weeks of June. We've seen an exceptional amount of flooding this year across western Canada, mainly in High River & Calgary Alberta, but the immense rain stretched and blanketed over Saskatchewan for almost the whole of the last two weeks of the month. In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, most farmers are at least a couple of weeks behind due to the late thaw of the snow, but as it happened, the thaw occurred too fast and now we're left with all this water.

It's one thing when you see it on the news, but recently I've been seeing it a lot first hand in Saskatoon as well as the RM of Corman Park, where out Saskatoon store is located. There are farmers with children that have to get off the bus and throw on their rubber boots just to get down the lane way. There are also acreage owners here that have to leave a vehicle at the end of the driveway, and come back and forth to the house with an ATV. There have been evacuees flooding in from northern Saskatchewan, from places such as Cumberland House who are staying at soccer & events centers around this city. These folks will thankfully be able to return home on July 3rd.

But yet, nothing compares to the damage being done in Alberta. There have been fatalities due to the flooding, and there are going to be millions in damages by the time this is all said and done. The Calgary Zoo had to relocate most of their animals, and had a few scares with losing some to the flood. The Saddle dome and Stampede grounds are under water, and several neighborhoods had to evacuate and relocate to drier ground. As our nation's fourth largest city is crippled by these floods, we stand by them as they can use all the support we have to offer.

The weather forecast shows that this is about it for the rain we're about to receive, and brighter days are ahead. We had a great Canada Day July long weekend, and we're going to be hovering around the 25 degree mark for the next two weeks with the exception of a little rain this weekend.

Every two years we replace the rental trailers in our fleets across all of our stores. We combine our pre-existing used inventory with our ‘birthday’ (clearance) trailers and add the trailers that come out of our rental fleets to make the largest trailer sale in our organization. We are currently clearing out over 350 trailers across western Canada, and we are sure we’ve got one to fit your bill. From small shuttle trailers, to motorcycle trailers, to car haulers, to dump trailers, to goosenecks, you’ll be hard pressed to find something we don’t have in our used inventory. Everything from aluminum to steel, light-duty to heavy-duty, in all sorts of colors, shapes and sizes. All trailers go through our service centers for a full inspection before they are put into our used inventory.

If you’ve gotten bored of the snow and have some free time over the next couple days, stop by the Crop Production show at Prairieland Park in Saskatoon! We will be exhibiting our Agriculture, Parts and Grain Cleaning divisions.

We have on display at the Agriculture booth (Hall E) two J&M Grain carts (one with an electronic scale), an Arc Alloy Pro Grain Bagger, a Tridekon Extractor, a 41’ Batco Conveyor with a mover kit, a Batco Transfer auger, a Wheatheart 10”x41’ auger with a diesel motor and mover kit, an OPI Systems Grain Monitoring display, a Schulte Crop Residue Shredder and a Hi-Man tow rope display.

In Hall A, we find the Grain Cleaning booth filled with Satake Color Sorters, grain elevator bucket systems and grain cleaning screen. You can see the Color Sorters working at any time! If you stop by there, be sure to check it out, it looks and works like something from a fiction novel.

Our Parts display in Hall B replicates a miniature version of our full-size Highway 16 location showroom. We’ve got water tanks on stands, fittings, pumps, engines, tow ropes and straps and any of the odds and ends you can think of when it comes to servicing or replacing parts and accessories for your agricultural equipment.